Today in History:

471 Series I Volume XXXI-I Serial 54 - Knoxville and Lookout Mountain Part I

Page 471 Chapter XLIII. THE KNOXVILLE, TENNESSEE, CAMPAIGN.


HEADQUARTERS,
Greenville, East Tennessee, March 22, 1864.

General S. COOPER,

Adjutant-General, Richmong, Va.:

GENERAL: I have the honor to inclose herewith charge and specification prepared against Brig. General E. M. Law. I desire that a court-martial may be convened for his trial as soon as exigencies of the service may permit.

I remain, sir,very respectfully, your most obedient servant,

JAMES LONGSTREET,

Lieutenant-General, Commanding.

[Indorsement.]

The resignation within referred to never came to the office. It appears, from inquiry at the War Department,that it was presented by a friend of General Law unofficially to the Secretary of War, and never came through the regular channel as an official paper.

S. [COOPER.]

[Inclosure.]

CHARGE AND SPECIFICATION PREPARED AGAINST BRIG. General E. M. LAW, OF THE CONFEDERATE STATES SERVICE.

CHARGE.-Conduct highly prejudicial to good order and military discipline.

Specification.-In this that Brig. General E. M. Law, aforesaid, did tender the resignation of his office as brigadier-general in the service aforesaid, and did obtain a leave of absence of his commanding general, Lieutenant General J. Longstreet, in consequence thereof, under the pretext that it was his (Brigadier-General Law's) design and desire to give up his commission for service in the cavalry,he having arranged at the same time with officers of his brigade to petition the War Department for service for the brigade in Alabama or elsewhere, with the expressed purpose of aiding the petition and returning to the brigade as its commander, thus obtaining a leave of absence under false pretenses, and thus deceiving his commanding general as to his real intentions, and thus using the influence of his couraging them to hope for more pleasant service in some field other than that to which they properly belong.

This near Bean's Station, East Tennessee, on or about the 19th of December 1863.

JAMES LONGSTREET,

Lieutenant-General, Commanding.

Witnesses:

Lieutenant General J. LONGSTREET, C. S. Army; Lieutenant Colonel G. M. SORREL, assistant adjutant-general; Lieutenant-Colonel JONES, Forty-fourth Alabama Volunteers; Lieutenant-Colonel HARDWICK, Forty-eighth Alabama Volunteers; Major W. MACK ROBBINS, Fourth Alabama Volunteers; Major LOWTHER, Fifteenth Alabama Volunteers; Colonel W. F. PERRY, Forty-fourth Alabama Volunteers;Captain CLOWER, Fourty-seventh Alabama Volunteers; Captain LINDSEY, Forty-seventh Alabama Volunteers.


Page 471 Chapter XLIII. THE KNOXVILLE, TENNESSEE, CAMPAIGN.